Holding Out for a Hero
by Rasler-Heios-Nabradia
Summary: Optimus Primal and the crew of the Axalon II set out for postGreat War Earth in search of the lost stasis pods. What he didn't expect to find was a pretty girl and her secondgrade brother. OptimusOC, RhinoxOC
1. Prologue

Silence filled the air of the spacious bridge on the new Maximal ship, the Axalon II. The usual chatter between crew members during landing had long since faded into a haunted stillness that no one cared to rupture. Even the usually mouthy Cheetor had fallen into a perfect sort of silence.

So many friends had been lost on this planet to become eternal guardians of the humans that now thrived and flourished. Noble warriors like Dinobot and Depthcharge had sacrificed themselves to keep this world safe. Others like Tigertron and Airazor had their lives stolen from them when all they'd wanted was to bask in the beauty of Earth's nature. The landing process proved to be a difficult one for everyone on board.

Rhinox quietly began the scanning process, a silent DNA sequencer that could pick up nearly every human being on the planet. Using modern Cybertronian technology, everyone on board could customize their appearance. They would need these new, human forms if they were going to blend with the now-intelligent humans. Rhinox chose a tall, muscular black man with thick arms and strong shoulders.

His three companions, Cheetor, Rattrap, and Optimus were busy choosing theirs, each one carrying a thoughtful expression on his face. It was obvious they were trying to fit their humans to match up with their personalities as well as their beast modes.

Their leader was of average height, Caucasian, with short black hair and a slightly crooked nose. It almost seemed like he'd purposefully chosen features that everyone would consider average and unremarkable. Cheetor chose a boyish yet graceful build, his shoulder-length hair sandy blonde and his legs dominating his height. Rattrap was short, thin and scrappy looking, with fluid-like hair and over exaggerated front teeth. It fit him in every sense of the word.

Now, to see if any of those Stasis Pods woke themselves up…


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One

Morgan Berchiere knew when his sister was lying. He glared at her, the expression coming off more like a childish pout than a true glare. "What do you mean?" The question was asked with narrowed brown eyes, his chin length black hair bobbing as he shifted to better watch his sister's actions.

She was cleaning. Sydney never cleaned.

"Syd, I'm serious," he said, poking at his cereal, all appetite lost to the unusual tension in the small mobile home. "What do you mean we have to stop by the police station?" Morgan was old enough to understand that people didn't go to the police station to have a friendly chat.

"I told you, Mor, I'm having a few problems with someone, and the police can help me get away from him for a little while," Sydney replied, her voice sounding a bit strained.

"Him? Oh, no, it's Kevin isn't it?" Morgan let out a whining sound, sinking down in his chair. He should have known earlier. His sister had the worst luck with guys ever. She attracted losers, but couldn't get rid of them once she figured out they were losers.

"Eat your cereal, we have to go." Sydney was stomping around the kitchen now, making two basic lunches for the both of them and packing them into a pair of lunch pales. She handed one to Morgan and went to retrieve his backpack. A quick check reassured that he'd have all his school supplies on his first day. That would leave a good impression, or so Sydney hoped.

"Syd, tell me what happened," she heard his tiny, seven-year-old voice call from down the hallway. She sighed, deciding that he had every right to know.

"Kevin came over last night. He wanted me to turn you over to the state so he and I could start over together. He said you cost too much money and are still too stressed out about your Mom being back in the Republic."

There was silence. Morgan tried hard not to be hurt when Sydney's boyfriends said strange things like this, but he was always afraid that one day she might listen to their requests and act on them. If she did, he wouldn't have any family and that was his worst fear. "What did you say, Syd?"

"I told him to get out of my house. I told him if I ever saw him again, I'd kill him. I said he had no right to talk about my little brother like that, and that you and I, Mor, have come way too far to be torn apart now." She paused for a few moments. "Then he tried to get past me, to get to your room. He said he'd do it for my own good, but I managed to shove him out the door and lock it. I called the police, and now I have to go tell them exactly what happened. Michelle is going to take you to school today."

Morgan had turned red in the face. "That son of a bitch! He can't take me away from you, Sydney! I won't let him!"

Sydney hugged him, kissing his forehead. "Come on, Morgan. Let's get out of here, okay?"

Michelle, a pretty black girl who claimed to be from Santa Cruz, stood in her third-floor apartment room in front of a vanity mirror twisting her highlighted hair into small, colorful braids. She had received the distressed call from her best friend, Sydney, just after midnight.

Michelle didn't hesitate when Sydney asked for her help. They were best friends, afterall, and what kind of friend would turn down another in a situation like this.

Syd had asked that Michelle take her little brother to school that day before going to work.

"Absolutely, sugar," Michelle cooed, trying to comfort her friend.

Michelle and Sydney had been friends for two years, but Michelle had known Sydney longer than that. The woman, though she looked only to be in her early twenties, was around since, quite literally, the beginning of human records.

Michelle was a Transformer. She had hatched sleepily from one of the lost stasis pods that Optimus sent into orbit to protect them from the crash. Her scanners indicated that she was in the Himalayas, and the DNA sequencer's chosen life form was a soft, cuddly red panda. Her datatracks, still fully intact, displayed a visual message from Optimus that was centuries old.

A Maximal without a purpose, she set off on four red panda padded paws hoping to complete a sort of world journey, determined to find a place and purpose in this strange new planet.

It literally took millions of years. She hid her stasis pod, dragging it to each new place she would call home. Finally, she took on the created appearance of a young black woman and moved her stasis pod into a do-it-yourself storage location.

She witnessed the Great War firsthand, but knew better than to interfere. Instead, she stood on the sidewalk, just as in awe of the great machines known as Autobots as the humans standing all around her. She had witnessed her own history.

Afterward, she met a girl named Sydney Berchiere at a woman's bar downtown. The two hit it off immediately. They snagged jobs together at the local department store, working in the women's section. Both girls seemed most comfortable about clothes and seemed to spend all their extra money on new outfits for themselves or the rapidly growing Morgan.

Michelle stood from her vanity just as she heard Sydney's trademark knock on her door. She slipped her wide hoop earrings into her ears as she walked to the door, opening it, laughing when Morgan tried to tackle her.

"Not today, shortcake, I'm all did up," she cooed, giving him a big hug. She then transferred her attention to Sydney. "Hey sugar, you feelin' all right?"

"Yeah," the half-Hispanic woman muttered. "I'll be happy when this is over and done with. I don't wanna have to think about the guy ever again."

"Well, don't you go givin' up on falling in love, Syd. Never know when your lucky day will roll around."

"Yeah, Meesh. Thanks for taking Morgan today. I owe you one." The women embraced briefly before Sydney kneeled to kiss Morgan's cheek. "See you after school today, Mor. Be good."

"You got it, Syd," the little boy smiled. Sydney left and made her way to her little Honda, and Michelle turned to look at Morgan.

"Come on, honey," she smiled. "Let's get going. I don't want you to be late for your first day of school."


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

"There's an abandoned beach twenty kilometers north," Cheetor was calling from his console on the Axalon. "A little overgrown, it looks like."

"It don't look like anyone's been there for years," exclaimed Rattrap, his eyes briefly glazing over everything on the monitor. "It's all fenced off and stuff."

Optimus seemed distracted. He kept running a fleshy hand through his new, human hair and staring in a small mirror. "Seems to short to me," he was mumbling under his breath before he realized that his crewmates were watching him, waiting for the go-ahead to land. "Right. Set her down, put the cloaking device up. Wouldn't want any humans to notice us…there's a lot more of them now."

They did as they were told, and the four crewmembers of the Axalon stood shakily, each trying to get used to their new, seemingly flimsy legs. At least they were naturally bipedal. That made things a bit easier, but there still seemed to be various weight issues.

Cheetor was the first who was able to walk fluidly, with humanoid form. He seemed overly proud of himself and moved to help Rattrap get the hang of his tiny feet. Once they were walking steadily, the two of them decided to go see what advances humans had made in food. Optimus stopped them.

"You really can't go out there calling yourselves Cheetor and Rattrap," he sighed, hands crossed over a strong looking chest.

The two smaller bots stared. Rattrap looked annoyed, but Cheetor looked positively clueless. "Why, Big Bot? What's the problem?"

"You honestly think humans sport names like that?" Optimus narrowed his eyes.

"Uhh…"

"It was a rhetorical question, Spots," Rattrap was mumbling.

Cheetor clapped his hands together excitedly. "Then, I pick the name Matthew!"

"I'll go by Adam then," Rattrap added.

The two of them left in a hurry, leaving an awkwardly silent Optimus and Rhinox shifting, shuffling clumsy feet. When both Maximals could comfortably walk from one end of the Axalon to the other, they decided on names for themselves.

"I like David," Optimus said, waiting for Rhinox's feedback.

The other Maximal was slightly sarcastic in response. "I always thought you looked like a David," he chuckled. He ignored Optimus' glare and went on. "I like the name Tyrell. I saw it on a billboard as we landed. Thought it sounded good and manly."

There was one of those awkward silences in which both males decided what had been said was one of those things one man shouldn't say to another.

Rhinox volunteered to stay with the ship, commanding Sentinel to stand down as Optimus left the vicinity.

The car ride wasn't as bad as it could have been. Morgan liked the music that Michelle listened to, even if Sydney would have deemed it too vulgar for his second-grade ears. Michelle knew better than to talk about Sydney or Kevin in the car, as Morgan was still visibly upset over it—and rightfully so.

Thinking about it caused Michelle to grit her teeth, her fingers gripping the steering wheel a little bit harder than a human girl should have, and it seemed to indent the rubber a little bit. A surge of energy passed from her body into the car, giving the engine an extra kick that sent it safely through a yellow light.

She blushed in embarrassment, hoping that Morgan didn't notice. He didn't seem to. She parked on the curb and got out of the car, taking Morgan's hand to walk him inside. She knew that Sydney wanted to be here on his first day, but things interfered. "Hello," the teacher greeted them. She was young, thin, but wearing an ugly yellow apron that suggested that teaching was her social life as well as her career path.

"Are you…Morgan's mother?" the woman asked in utter disbelief.

"No, I'm his sister's best friend. I'm on his emergency contacts list, don't you worry about that." She knelt down and kissed Morgan's cheeks. "You be good now, all right? Sydney will be here to get you after school, honey, don't you worry."

They hugged again and she shooed him into the classroom, turning to walk away. She made it out to the car and got back in, sitting in the driver's seat and staring heatedly out the window. She'd have to be at work in fifteen minutes, so she started the car, beginning off slowly, calming her nerves.

The store was only a few blocks away from their school, but traffic was so horrible that she still arrived ten minutes late. She parked in her usual spot and snuck in the backdoor, clocking in and putting her nametag on. When she turned around, Ms. Beckett, her boss, was standing in front of her, hands on her ever expanding hips.

"Should I even ask if you checked the time before walking in here today, Michelle?" Beckett asked.

"No, I realize I'm late, ma'am. I had to drop Sydney's brother off at school today, and then I caught morning traffic-"

"Wait, where's Sydney? She's supposed to be in, too!"

"Sydney had to stop by the police office to file for a restraining order. Her boyfriend tried to kidnap Morgan last night, so Syd kicked him out."

Her boss stared at her. "I'd say…all right, I won't hassle you today, but you should come in Monday ten minutes early to make up for it."

"Yeah, yeah, that's all right! Don't worry about me, Miss Beckett, I'm a sister of my word."

When her boss seemed satisfied, she moved off to hassle the girls working in the men's department. Michelle slumped against the counter for a moment before the strangest bout of electrical interference made her circuits buzz.   
"Ahh! Now what the jeezus was that?"

She spun around and went back to the doors and noticed something only her maximal eyes could have possibly seen. There was a disturbance in the atmosphere. The clouds seemed to smear right into the ocean, and she knew there was something wrong with that.

"Right down on old Desmond's beach, too," Michelle muttered. "Right on schedule, eh boys?"

They came twenty years after the Great War, just as Optimus said he would, to recover and Maximals that survived the stasis pod tragedy.

She glanced at the sparkly watch on her wrist and sighed, hoping that Sydney wasn't too much longer. She really wanted to get out there and see what all the commotion was about.


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Sydney sat across from a hard looking female cop, tapping her long fingernails on the table in front of her. The cop recorded everything from apparent offenses, name, age, date of birth, place of occupation…Sydney gave her all the information she could. She wasn't surprised when the cop looked up, lips pressed together.

"Well, there isn't anything we can do to him except place a restraining order against him. I'll write it into the school system as well so he won't be able to pick Morgan up." The cop smiled gently at Sydney. Syd was thankful that a female cop took her case. She felt as though the woman was being more sympathetic to her plight.

"Now…what happens if he comes after us?" Sydney's question was asked with a bit of a furrowed brow, a sign of worried anxiety.

The cop smiled. "You give us a ring, we bring his ass in."

Sydney smiled. "Thanks, Officer Diehl." She signed the papers where the cop told her to and then stood, moving back out towards her car. She knew Kevin would be called. He'd probably get angry…she hoped that she didn't have to hear from him tonight at least.

She started the vehicle and began back towards the department store, pressing the volume knob that turned her radio on. She flicked past various Blink 182, 80's hair metal, and modern rap to get to a more classic station, an acoustic guitar strumming a tune she hadn't heard in a few years.

When the bass kicked in, she found herself tapping her foot to the rhythm, and singing along to the smooth tenor voice.

"_Well I don't know why I came here tonight,_

_I got the feeling that something ain't right,_

_I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,_

_And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs,_

_Clowns to the left of me,_

_Jokers to the right, here I am,_

_Stuck in the middle with you."_

Isn't it funny, thought Sydney, how any song can fit your predicament when you're really in over your head? She laughed as the chorus rolled through, remembering a scene from a movie where the song she was listening to was being played through a torture scene.

"_Well you started out with nothing,_

_And you're proud that you're a self made man,_

_And your friends, they all come crawlin',_

_Slap you on the back and say,_

_Please... Please..."_

Sydney turned the volume down as she rolled into the parking lot. She was only a half-hour late, which was much better than she expected to be, but Michelle was standing by the door, looking for her. When she spotted Sydney's blue Honda, she waved, motioning for her to come in quickly.

She parked in the back lot and stepped out of her car, hurrying up the walkway to meet her friend who looked absolutely anxious. "Michelle, what's with you, is everything all right?"

"Everything's fine, no problems at school…I just want you to cover for me for a few minutes. I gotta go down to Old Desmond's Beach." Michelle didn't really realize how strange that sounded. Desmond's beach had been fenced off for over twenty years, and no one was allowed in.

"What, planning on skipping work?" Sydney asked with a suspicious grin.

"No way, sister, something fell out of the sky and landed over there, and my ass is going over there to see what it was!" Michelle was brandishing a hand.

"All right, well…you did me a favor. Just…if it involves handsome, responsible men falling from the sky, point them in my direction, would you?" Sydney joked, walking into the store to clock in.

"You know it, honey," Michelle grumbled, hoofing her way to the abandoned shore.

"Uh oh…" Rhinox mumbled as he exited the ship. His leader had left moments before him, but apparently hadn't seen the petite woman marching her way through the sand, her pretty face contorted into a look of pure anger.

Rhinox checked behind himself to make sure the ship's cloaking device was working before approaching the woman. He gave a wave and called out to her. "Excuse me! I'm lost…I'm looking for-"

But the woman cut him off. "I know exactly what you're looking for you fake-ass imposter! And you'd best start explaining _why _you left me here to begin with, or I'm gonna start breaking your noggin, regardless of how hot you look in those jeans—are those Levis, hon? They look greeeeat."

Rhinox stared. "I'm sorry?"

"You heard me!" Michelle snapped. "I'm one of the Axalon's crew, and obviously the only one whose internal memory survived…otherwise I'd have been contacted by now, don't you think?"

"That's probably true. I'm Rhinox," he held out his hand to shake, a gesture which he and Rattrap practiced a bit before coming to Earth.

"That's great, Rhinox, but what's your name?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. She took his hand to shake. "I know you ain't walking around calling yourself Rhinox."

"T-Tyrell," he stuttered, taken aback. She was extremely forward.

"Tyrell, that's cute. I'm Michelle, or at least that's what the humans call me. Where's Optimus?" she asked, hands on her hips. "I know he's here with you. I wanna know where he is, and when I can talk to him about getting off this rock."

Michelle stopped, a hurt look on her own face. Sydney. What about her? Sydney was so dependent on Michelle…well, she'd think about it once she talked to Optimus.

"He left. I'm sure he'll be back soon," Rhinox reasoned, trying to keep the femme-bot calm.

"I don't have time to be waiting on him, I have to get back to work! And I suggest you follow me. Maybe we'll run into him on the way."

Rhinox followed her off the beach, and he couldn't help watching her hips as she moved. She seemed to realize that his eyes had drifted because she cleared her throat loudly.

"Boy, I know you ain't looking at my ass."


End file.
